Britain's Crimes of Honour Panorama

Thousands of crimes of violence in Britain are going unpunished, even

murder. I need to shut her up. They did.

That's what they did. They are committed by those closest

to the victims, their families. Some blame their own communities

for failing to confront this abuse. Not to demonstrate real leadership

on this is extremely irresponsible. It is morally wrong and it is

morally blind. No-one knows how many women in Britain are being

silenced by so-called honour. There is no place for multicultural

sensitivity, this is something that A moth err remembers a teenage

daughter. Killed by her young boyfriend for shaming his family.

It happened in riot ram. It is still as raw now as what it

was then. I try not to think about the attack.

I do know what was done to her, I try to blank that out.

Laura's killer was just 17. An Asian born and raised here, but

when she challenged his traditional culture, Laura had to be silenced.

He was found guilty of her murder last year.

He has never shown remorse, never. Never.

In multi-cultural Britain today, many young people from immigrant

communities are well integrated. Yet in many households, old

traditions are still a powerful force. Some cause harm.

Up and down the country, behind closed doors, crimes are being

committed. Kidnap and false imprisonment. Women and girls being

beaten, raped and even murdered. All in the name of so-called honour.

The authorities admit that they just don't know the real scale of

this abuse. Can I help? I've just seen a lady

who has been referred to our service who is receiving direct

threats from her family to kill her... There is a national helpline

for those being threatened and suffering domestic violence because

of honour. The help line was set up by a Sikh,

brought up in Derby. Jasvinder Sanghera.

I was never allowed to walk the streets on my own. We were always

chaperoned wherever we went as there was fear of dishonour in the

family. Jasvinder Sanghera was 14 when she

was imprisoned in her family for refusing to marry a man she had

never met. She ran away from home and the code of honour that rules

here. What we have are families living

next to each other, they are the eyes and the ears of the community.

They all be involved in the honour system. In south Asian and Middle

Eastern communities, controlling the behaviour of women is seen as

the key to the family's honour. I was conditioned to learn that

from a very young age. It is dishonourable to make eye contact

with men. Sit with men. The shift in change as you get older, you are

not allowed to have boyfriends, if you are seen talking to the

opposite sex, cutting your hair, you are wearing make-up, these are

taught as dishonourable actions if you engage in this behaviour you

will put yourself at risk. They can be triggers for significant harm, a

forced marriage, or even murder. Calls to the Honour helpline have

doubled in the four years since it was set up.

The 500 call as month that we are currently receiving, from my

perspective, is a drop in the ocean. There are hundreds and thousands

out there that we are yet to reach. One of the volunteers here, Neina,

was disowned by her own family. She had run away from her husband who

beat her. She is still afraid of showing her face.

Every time he hit me, he had an excuse, the first thing he said is

that I swore at him or raised my voice. Then my parents would say I

deserved it. For them to be disowned in society, it is like an

honour thing for them it is easy to sacrifice a daughter or a son or

your extended family that you are trying to please all of the time.

Did you fear you may be killed? lot of times. Even now, my dad said

if you leave him, I will be made to do something that I do not want to

No-one knows how many honour crimes there are in this country.

The latest survey of Police Force statistics, found over 2,800 a year.

That is nearly eight a day. That does not even include a quarter of

This is one of the handful of refuges in this country just for

Asian women and their children. Everyone here has run away from a

husband's home, where his extended family and "honour" have made their

live as misery. So many times my husband beat me up.

He never listened to me, always to my mother-in-law.

So he was physically violent to you? Yes, to me and my mother-in-

law and sister-in-law. They disrespected me. They treated me

like I have no honour, no respect, that I am like a slave.

Many of these women come from Pakistan as young brides. Their

passports are taken away, they become prisoners, almost, not even

allowed to learn English. Like Qawal.

My mother-in-law hit me so hard in the face, blood poured from my ear.

I did not know anything about the outside world. I could not speak

the language. I did not know anything about money. I was a

prisoner in the house. Once I was locked in the bedroom for 13 days.

I thought that the only way to get out would be through the upstairs

wind yes or by killing myself. I just wanted to end it all.

Nationally, the police response to honour crime has been patchy.

Serious mistakes have been made. A murder detective at the

Metropolitan Police has had to learn what honour killing in

Britain is all about. She was stabbed multiple times. 18

times. In all of these cases they involve extreme violence as the

murders are committed to send a message to the wider community.

Often there are multiple perpetrators, there is a degree of

high organisation, precipitated by a family meeting, often.

It was a family meeting that sealed the fate of Banaz Mahmod. She was a

19-year-old Iraqi Kurd, who had been allowed to leave her violent

husband. But when Banaz Mahmod started

secretly seeing someone else and was spotted kissing him outside of

this tube station in south London it was too much for the family's

honour. They called a meeting of close relatives at their home and

they decided to kill her. This is a letter written by Banaz

Mahmod and handed into the police station on the 12th of December. In

the letter she names some of the people whom she has heard are going

to be responsible for her murder. She knew who was threatening her?

She had been told who the people were who would be responsible for

killing her. The people named in there are the people convicted for

her murder. This video of Banaz was taken by

her boyfriend in hospital, after her father first attempted to kill

her. But Banaz would not press charges.

The police did not recognise the danger she was in. She went home.

What happened on that night, the police were called, but the officer

that turned up did not understand what it was she was being told. She

had no prior knowledge of honour- based violence and simply did not

believe, in all fairness, what it was that she was being told. The

police clearly did fail Banaz on that occasion.

A month later, Banaz went missing. A murder hunt was launched. Her

uncle and father had been detained, but there was no hard evidence

against them. All our efforts focused on trying

to find Banaz's body. We literally lived, breathed and slept trying to

find her. We have the address, looking now...

Banaz's body was found in the garden of this house, over 100

miles from the home where she had been murdered. The relatives had

been secretly recorded, boosting of where they had hidden her.

After digging for a day, we finally discovered her body buried six feet

deep under the footings of the house. They had gone to great

lengths to ensure we did not find her. It took five years. Even trips

to Iraq to extradite and bring all Banaz's relatives, responsible for

her murder to justice. Banaz Mahmod's case was a watershed

it made the police and prosecutors realise how serious honour crime

had become in this country. We don't know the true figure of

honour killings. It is anything between ten and 12 a year in this

country. I don't know how many other unmarked grave there is are

in this green and pleasant land. I don't know, that suggests to me

that we are underestimating the issue.

There are thousands of women in Britain today, who live in silence,

in fear of their lives because of honour.

We can't show you the face of this young Kurdish woman.

Leila came here to join her husband, who turned out to be violent and

unstable. TRANSLATION: He put his hands

around my throat. He said he would kill me, and cut

me into pieces and put me in a rubbish bag. No-one would even know

I was in this country, he had said. Even the police would not know

about me. There was no reason for him to

threaten and insult me. He said to me, "When I see you it

makes me crazy. When I beat you up it makes me feel better." Leila

ended up in hospital with serious injuries.

But she was pregnant and went back to her husband.

Things got worse and she ran away. But leaving her husband has not

ended the threat to her life. TRANSLATION: The dishonourable

thing I did was to go to a refuge. In Kurdistan a refuge is seen as a

very bad place. Some women cannot escape abusive

marriages. The only way out is to silence themselves.

Suicide rates among south Asian women in Britain are three times

the national average. It's stunning statistics, when you

realise, that in fact there is only one other group that has that

similar figure, which are soldiers that have returned from the war

zone of Iraq and Afghanistan. They themselves, these women, they are

living in a war zone. They can think of no other way of getting

out of the situation without "dishonouring their family "than

killing themselves. When Nashin came to live here from

Pakistan, she thought that she would be happy, but she was soon

calling home, saying that the was ill-treating her. He told her not

to leave for the sake of the honour. TRANSLATION: I said that the best

daughters are the ones that stay in their particular tal homes until

the day that they diefplt No father wants their daughter to

end her marriage in divorce, that would not be right.

But things got worse. She left home flee times and went

to other relatives in Sheffield, but was persuaded to go back to her

husband. One day she rang her parents in Pakistan with a chilling

warning. She said, "Did you sell me to them

for money. When you see me next, I will not be alive, I will be dead."

An hour later, the new bride was found on fire in her garden. The

burns are too horrific to show Mr azaan came to England. Every day

he visits his daughter in a nursing home. She suffered a massive brain

haemorrhage and has never been able to reveal what really happened.

TRANSLATION: She is lifeless, like a living corpse. She can't talk,

can't walk, can't eat, she is the living dead. The most painful thing

for us is that our daughter, who The circumstances of Vogue -- fake,

you don't know for sure whether she tried to commit suicide or whether

somebody tried to kill her. Sheffield police have told Mr Aslam

and the women's group helping him there's no evidence anyone else was

involved so they can't take the case any further. The police

believe his daughter set herself alight. It was a cry for life --

help, but her father wants an It is unclear what happened to her,

but campaigners say there are cases where women unable to escape have

resorted to suicide. They want to see those responsible held to

account. People who drive others to harm themselves in the context of

violence and abuse and bullying and harassment and intimidating and

threatening behaviour are just as much culpable as if they were

There's little sign that the desire to preserve the honour of the

family at all costs is changing. Even with the younger generation.

Here in Rotherham, one love-story across the racial divide has had a

tragic ending. Laura Wilson was only 17, a strong-willed girl whose

behaviour would trigger her murder. Feisty. She had a mouth on her, if

she had something to say, she would say it. Laura lived in Ferham Park,

a mixed white and Asian community. She was only a teenager, but she

had already had a baby by an Asian man, Ishaq Hussain, known as that.

He had refused to recognise the But the boy Laura laughed was his

friend, 17-year-old Ashtiaq Ashgar. -- love it. Ashtiaq was her first

love, she adored him. She was all is on the phone to him and he was

on the phone to her. All ready stung by Zak's rejection of their

child, when Ashtiaq jilted Laura, she wasn't going to just accept it.

She decided to go and see Ashtiaq's family Anzac's family and tell them

she had had relationships with both of them. This is the area a Ferham

with the terraced houses. Ashtiaq's house is one of those on the main

road. Detective Mick Mason took me to the area where Laura confronted

the men's families. Their reactions were quite vocal. An argument broke

out. One of the mothers tried to hit Lawro with a shoe. -- Laura.

She was told she would not welcome. There were a number of meetings

between the two men and we believe it was decided then that Laura had

Three days after confronting the families, Laura met Ashtiaq down by

the canal. He had sent her a text, he wanted to see her alone. This is

the way Lawro came, from by the railings down there. -- Laura.

was dark by the time Laura met Ashtiaq down by the canal. Then she

got a phone call from her mother. asked her where she was. I said it

was about time she got home. She said, I will not be long, and that

was it. That was the last you Within minutes, the police believe,

Ashtiaq began a frenzy knife attack on Laura before throwing her into

I have seen many murders, but this was the worst I've seen. The

pathologist in court said that Laura had a number of stab wounds

to the crown of her head. He believed that Laura had been

subject to stabbing while she was trying to get out of the canal and

the knife had been used to stop her getting out of the canal. When

Laura's body was found, Ashtiaq and Zak were arrested and tried for her

murder. I think it was about honour and shame. Laura, in their eyes,

had brought shame on the family by coming round and their sons had

brought shame on the family as well. Ashtiaq was found guilty of killing

Laura and sentenced to 17 years in prison. Zak was acquitted. I do

honestly think it was an honour killing. Shame on the family. She

needed to be shut up. They needed to shut her up. And they did. That

is what they did. What happened to Laura Wilson shows that honour can

be just as important to young people born and brought up here as

it is to their parents. I thought this was a generational thing,

something that would die out with my generation. But I've come across

very young people who think the same way. One example, a young man,

20 years old, said to me, don't you understand? Man is a piece of gold,

woman is a piece of silk. If you drop a piece of gold in March, you

can wipe it clean. If you drop a piece of silk in March, it is

stained forever. That is his view of women. That is why he thinks

women should be controlled. Their behaviour can't be allowed to go

unchecked. That is the 20-year-old. To find out more about the

attitudes of the younger generation, we carried out an opinion poll of

young Asians. Men and women. Over two-thirds agreed families should

live according to the concept of honour. Interestingly, the younger

age group, between 16 and 24, felt more strongly about it. At first,

only 6% of the total said it was right to physically punish a woman

who brings dishonour on her family. But that went up to 18%, nearly one

in five, when presented with a specific list. Disobeying the

father, marrying someone unacceptable or wanting to end a

marriage. Young Asian women are just as likely as men to say they

The key to changing attitudes to honour lies in education. Boys need

to be taught what is unacceptable, girls to know they don't have to

suffer in silence. The campaigner Jasvinder Sanghera approach 100

schools before finding this one prepared to let her in to talk

about this sensitive issue. don't schools want me to talk to

them? It is the same old thing. We don't want to offend communities,

we don't want to tread on cultural toes. These excuses because they

have been trained to be culturally sensitive. A third of children here

are from ethnic minorities. Jaswinder tells them her own story.

I came home from school, I was 14. My mother sat me down and she

presented his photograph to me. She said, this is the man you are going

to marry. I said, but mum, I want to finish school. She said, no,

where you're going, you don't need an education, you are going to get

married. This already has some experience of the forced marriage

and honour abuse she is describing. We have seen issues were children

have had to be supported into refuges, escaping difficult

situations at home. Children have not returned from holidays abroad.

Situations where we have supported children on their route to

education because it has been an alternative to pressure to be

married. The majority of experts argue that the root cause of honour

crime lies enforced marriage. Forced marriage is where your

family crossed the line, you say no, and they are forcing you to do it.

That is abuse, child abuse, it is wrong. The government is now

considering making forced marriage Probably about 10,000 of those in

this country every year. We are looking at a substantial problem.

We're just scratching the surface. Forced marriage is the earthquake

and what has followed is a tsunami of domestic abuse, sexual abuse,

child protection issues, suicide and murder. If we can tackle forced

marriage, we can prevent all of these other things from happening.

But the signs so far have not been encouraging. Three years ago, all

public agencies in this country, thousands of organisations, were

given the statutory guidelines in order to tackle forced marriage and

honour abuse. But in a recent review, only 81 even responded. The

government admits it is disappointing, shows inconsistency

Considering that she is a minor, 15, it is important that you become

involved in keeping her say. honour helpline receives dozens of

calls a week about young girls at risk. The parents have found a text

message on her phone and they believe the message to have been

from a boy. They have beaten her and kept her off school. There's

talk of her going to Pakistan in the half-term holidays. What might

happen to her in Pakistan? She is Jazz Wenger is still fighting

reluctance in some quarters to face the problems caused by the honour

code. I have yet to see community leaders, and religious leaders,

Asian councillors, politicians, give real leadership on this. They

don't. They know it makes them unpopular. They know this is

happening and to know that significant abuse in your

communities is happening and not to demonstrate real leadership on this

is extremely irresponsible, it is morally wrong and it is morally

blind. Those who are trying to tackle it say all honour crimes

must be confronted. It needs to be said that the vast majority that we

see of the Muslim community, of which I'm a member. There's no

place for a multicultural sensitivity in this situation. This

is something we can't tolerate. The moment I stop looking at a

community because somebody tells me it is too sensitive is the moment I

But until young men reject violence in the name of Warner, others will

die. -- honour. Everybody misses And until more families speak out